Orange County came away with big wins in both games.

The Orange County girls scored a 3-0 win behind goals from Timber Creek’s Elizabeth Hagan, Winter Park’s Hannah Madsen and Apopka’s Lindsey Rice. Shelby Kesic (Timber Creek) got most of the work in the net to help secure the shutout.

Most Valuable Player awards went to Orangewood’s Kelsey Affolter and Lake Mary’s Saskia Bryant.

The Orange County boys got three goals from MVP Deividy Cunha (Olympia) and another score from Colonial’s Ricardo King in a 4-1 win in the nightcap. Lake Mary’s Eric Skiko was named Seminole County MVP.

The games will be broadcast this Saturday on Bright House Sports Network Channel 47. The girls game will be shown at 12 noon with the boys game following at 4 p.m.

– Note: Much of the following post by J.C. Carnahan appeared in Orlando Sentinel’s Varsity the Blog –

– Orange vs. Seminole Girls –

The Orange County vs. Seminole County girls senior soccer game featured UCF-signee April Asby of Oviedo and forwards Lindsey Rice (Apopka), Micah Brown (Ocoee) and Kelsey Affolter (Orangewood).

Orange County Girls (Photo by J.C. Carnahan)

Rice helped lead Apopka to an appearance in the region finals this past season and was joined on the Orange County team by fellow Blue Darter midfielder Kaley Rhodes.

Brown finished her career with 30 goals and 22 assists at Ocoee. She lined up for the final time alongside Knights midfielder Michelle Labbie.

Other sets of Orange County teammates included Brooke Comans (defender), Elizabeth Hagan (midfield) and Shelby Kesic (goalkeeper) from Timber Creek, and Bishop Moore midfielders Alex Bentzon and Megan Young.

Defenders Tryncha Farrell (University), Gloria Gomez (Freedom), Lauren Shea (West Orange), Mia Jakubisin (Lake Highland); midfielders Alexis Garrand (Dr. Phillips), Hannah Madsen (Winter Park), Ellisa Reed (Wekiva); and goalkeeper Chelsea Lingelbach from Edgewater made up the rest of the Orange roster.

Seminole County Girls (Photo by J.C. Carnahan)

Just three players from Seminole’s state runner-up team – Megan Kreinbring, Megan Buford, Andrea Murillo – took part in Saturday’s game.

Winter Springs was represented in the game by six seniors, as Shelby Guenthardt, Katrina Leibbrandt, Blake Butterfield, Samantha Murphy, Michelle Samper and Allie Costanza played one more time together after appearing in the state semifinals.

Lake Mary also had six participants: Mallory Bates, Saskia Bryant, Melony Harder, Danielle Mollerup, Lauren Storch and Megan Lynch.

Lake Howell’s Priscilla Amalbert joined Oviedo’s Asby, Jillian Peppiat, Lindsay Osborn and Allie DeJesus, and Hagerty’s Samantha Shuman, Carolyn Piggot and Angela Malanga on the Seminole roster.

– Orange vs. Seminole Boys –

The Seminole boys roster was led by midfielder Tyler McDaniel and defender Justin Green of Lake Mary, and Orangewood Christian forward Aaron Gendreau and midfielder Josh Hudson.

The Orange roster featured Olympia forward Deividy Cunha and Ocoee goalkeeper Keniel Baker, who allowed just 13 goals this past season.

Orange County Boys (Photo by J.C. Carnahan)

Playing alongside Cunha on the Orange County team were Olympia High teammates Timmy Gross (midfielder) and defenders Robert Kirkwood and Marco Fumagalli. They helped the Titans advance to the region finals this past season.

Midfielder Sebastian Gonzalez was the lone representative from Celebration’s region final team.

Helping anchor the defense was Winter Park keeper Orman Kimborough and defenders Luis Valazquez of University and Timber Creek’s Jorge Nazario and Garrett Depietaro.

Antonio Ascencio (University), Steven Harvey (Apopka), Sebastian Carmona (Boone), John Labrador (Cypress Creek) and Mitch Handley (Winter Park) made up the midfield while forwards Ricardo King (Colonial), Kejoun Benjamin (Ocoee) and Luke Davis (Lake Highland Prep) rounded out the roster.

Seminole County Boys (Photo by J.C. Carnahan)

Seminole County was represented by nine All-Seminole Athletic Conference First Team selections, including McDaniel and Green. Among them were goalkeeper Patrick Bond (Lyman); defenders Omner Morelos (Winter Springs), Ryan McDonald (Seminole) and Kraig Naas (Lyman); midfielder Eric Skiko (Lake Mary); and forwards Taylor Cope (Hagerty) and Joey Hollis (Lake Howell).

Also representing the state finals team from Seminole in the game were goalkeeper Ryan Ensign and midfielder Jason Marthe. Defender Connor McCarthy, forward Robbie Hamoud and midfielders Marco Solano and Matthew Ilter made the cut from Lake Mary’s region final team.

Rounding out the remainder of the Seminole County roster was Hagerty midfielders Derek Eiflander and Erick Hamann; Lake Howell defender Brandon Carpenter; and Lyman forward Daniel Jimenez and midfielder Brendan Holmes.

“He’s a feisty player,” said Los Angeles Lakers Coach Phil Jackson. “Barnes did an admirable job standing up to Kobe in the course of the game.”

While Barnes finished with just 10 points, six rebounds and four fouls in over 32 minutes of play, it was the way he mixed it up with all-star Kobe Bryant that helped set the tone.

Yet his scrappy style elicited a mere roll-of-the-eyes from at least two players in the L.A. locker room, rather than warranting any kind of respect following the game.

Matt Barnes (Photo by J.C. Carnahan)

“He’s a monkey, that dude,” said Lamar Odom aloud, as he posted up at a nearby locker when Ron Artest was asked for his take on the play of Barnes.

“He picked the right game to act tough,” added Odom.

Odom held nothing back in his assessment of the journeyman who looks to have found a home in Orlando – thanks to his gutsy effort night in and night out – following stints with six different teams since 2003-04.

“It’s not like [Barnes] getting in guy’s faces made us lose the ball, or retaliate, or get stupid fouls or anything like that,” said Odom.

“He got the crowd into it. Ric Flair does the same thing,” he said. “He had his wresting gear on today. All he needed was a cape and tights.”

When Bryant was asked what type of affect a guy like Barnes has on him when he gets in his face, he emphatically laughed – not once, but twice – before saying “it’s entertaining” with a glowing sarcastic grin across his face.

Most will remember this game as the Barnes-Bryant Beef, but the physical style of play was apparent throughout the afternoon no matter who was out on the floor.

And the playoff atmosphere was plentiful, too, as local fans have yet to forget the image of L.A. celebrating a title won a year ago on the Magic’s home court.

While visiting players used terms such as “tough” and “chippy” when describing the kind of game that was played, there was never a real sense that the Lakers seemed overly concerned with the prospect of possibly facing Orlando again down the road.

“I’ve played [against] teams that are more physical,” said Bryant. “Matt Barnes was physical in terms of putting hands on you and things like that, but him bumping me and Kenyon Martin bumping me are two different things.”

With only two meetings each regular season between these two teams it’s hard to imagine a serious rivalry beginning to brew. Not in the wake of a regular-season split where both teams won games in their own buildings.

That is unless they both manage to pull off a return trip to the NBA Finals, and get back to battling for much more than just a little slice of respect this time of year.

– More on Orlando Magic vs. Los Angeles Lakers at Howard the Dunk –

Myk Brown was named conference tournament most outstanding player. He led the team in the championship game by going for 16 points as Nikola Baran (14 points), Nick Wolf (13) and Ian Scott (12) also scored in double figures.

Myk Brown (Photo by Jim Hogue)

Wolf joined Brown on the all-tournament team after helping the second-seeded Tars get past Tampa 73-54 and Eckerd 72-65 in the opening two rounds. It’s the third conference title for the Rollins program and its first since 2006. They also brought home the hardware in 1992.

The Tars (25-5) earned a No. 2 seed in the South Region and will begin tournament play this weekend against Alabama-Huntsville (23-6) in Russellville, Arkansas. The winner advances to play either Barry (19-11) or Florida Southern (25-4).

It’s the fifth time in the past seven years that Rollins is competing in the postseason and serves as their first trip since 2007, when they defeated Valdosta State before falling to Eckerd in the second round.

Should Rollins get past the opening two games of bracket play, the Tars would meet up with the survivor between Arkansas Tech, Tuskegee, Valdosta State and Clark-Atlanta on Tuesday, March 16.

Wolf (17.9 points per game) and Brown (15.9) led the Tars in scoring this past season. Wolf also led the team in rebounding (8.3) and assists (3.2) while draining 57 3-pointers. Scott recorded 56 steals on the year.

Keep up with the Division II Men’s Tournament at NCAA and Rollins Sports.

Cole allowed just four hits to the Lady Tide last Sunday, one day after the Knights defeated Nebraska 5-4 in extra innings. Alabama made an appearance in the Women’s College World Series a season ago.

Head coach Renee Luers-Gillispie has never shied from playing nationally ranked teams, and because of that the Knights now have their second big win of the season after previously taking down No. 16 Tennessee to start the year.

In the win, the Knights got six hits from six different players as Hillary Barrow, Arielle Palafox and Marissa Menendez each drove in runs.

UCF closed out the event with a 2-3 mark after losing to No. 11 Georgia Tech, Arkansas and Maryland. They now stand at 7-8 overall.

Cole improved to 5-4 on the season in the circle while striking out three batters over seven innings of work, giving her over 300 strikeouts for her career. She also went 1-for-3 at the plate with a run scored. Cole is currently just four wins away from taking over the No. 2 spot for all-time wins in UCF softball history.

She presently sits at No. 4 all-time with 43 victories to her credit – two wins behind Dottie Cupp and four behind surpassing Lindsey Enders. Allison Kime finished her stellar career with 71 wins for the Knights.

With 19 more strikeouts, Cole will overtake Enders at No. 3 all-time on that list.

Also on the brink of an individual milestone is Tiffany Lane. The junior enters the weekend with 18 triples, just one short of matching and two short of claiming the Conference USA record for most in a career.

This weekend the Knights host the six-team UCF Tournament through Sunday at UCF Softball Complex where they’ll play five games over three days.

Participants include Boston College, College of Charleston, Georgia Southern, Harvard and Providence.

The games can be seen online at UCF Athletics.

With the win, the Titans (4-2) moved percentage points in front of the Toronto Rock (6-4) for first place in the Eastern Division. In the recent power poll – put together by NLL Insider columnist and poll administrator Brian Shanahan – the Titans passed over Toronto, Calgary (4-3) and former No. 1 Washington (6-3) for the top spot.

Wrote Shanahan: “Matt Vinc, Casey Powell, and a strong defense have made the Titans the hardest team to beat right now. We’ll see if they really belong here after they complete three games in the next two weekends.”

On Wednesday, Powell was named both the National Lacrosse League Offensive and Overall Player of the Week while Vinc earned his second NLL Defensive Player of the Week honor. Orlando has been awarded four player of the week honors this season.

Powell scored four goals and had four assists for the Titans last week. Vinc tied his own team record for saves with 52 on 63 shots against in the win. Vinc currently leads the league in saves per game, save percentage and goals against average.

The Titans are on the road at No. 10 Buffalo (2-6) this Saturday and return home to Amway Arena against No. 9 Philadelphia (2-6) on Friday, March 12. They will then be at No. 7 Rochester (5-4) the very next day.

Before Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier, threats of violence kept him from playing in Central Florida.

Robinson also starred in one of Orlando’s biggest games ever – a 1949 exhibition that attracted a standing-room-only crowd at Carter Street Park, the home of the city’s Negro Leagues team.

Two generations later, Robinson’s historic achievements and struggles are chronicled in an upcoming exhibit at the University of Central Florida’s main library. The exhibit also features photographs and memorabilia from the Orlando All-Stars, which competed in the Negro Leagues throughout the 1940s and 1950s.

“Pride & Passion: The African American Baseball Experience” tells the story of African-American baseball players in the United States from the Civil War through the present, and it relates their experiences to the struggle for civil rights.

The exhibit will open Friday, March 5, and run through Thursday, April 15. Admission to the exhibit and several related lectures and discussions will be free.

“We had to have a certain amount of self-discipline to survive while traveling around to different cities under the ill winds of racism,” recalled Bob “Peach Head” Mitchell, one of four former Negro Leagues players who will visit UCF on March 19. “It’s very important for kids today to hear those stories.”

The UCF Libraries were selected as one of 50 nationwide sites for the “Pride & Passion” exhibit, which was organized by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the American Library Association and funded through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The traveling exhibit is based on a permanent exhibit at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. A portion of the exhibit is funded through a grant from the UCF Office of Diversity Initiatives.

To tell the story of Central Florida’s rich but often forgotten baseball history, UCF will display collections from partners such as the Sanford Museum, the Wells’Built Museum of African-American History and Orlando resident Carol Mundy.

The Central Florida connections include:

– Before Robinson played his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers, threats of violence forced the cancellation of a spring game in Sanford. A day game in DeLand was called off due to “malfunctioning lights.” Robinson was able to take the field in Daytona Beach, the spring home of the Dodgers, and the stadium there was renamed “Jackie Robinson Ballpark” in 1990.

– Sunday afternoon Negro League games were major social gatherings for African-Americans. Fans dressed up for the games, and players drove through the streets to promote the games. The Orlando All-Stars played at Carter Street Park because Tinker Field was reserved for whites.

For more information and a full schedule of events, visit UCF Library.

Dexter Fields (Photo by J.C. Carnahan)

In a 53-49 win over the Knights, Fields drained four 3-pointers and went 1-for-2 at the line in helping UAB notch the victory.

Fields led UAB with a team-high 13 points on 4 of 9 shooting and grabbed three rebounds in 21 minutes of play.

The 6-2, 190-pound guard came in averaging just 2.4 points (37-percent shooting), 0.6 rebounds and 0.2 assists in eight minutes per game so far in his freshman season. The Blazers (22-5 overall, 10-3 Conference USA) have been ranked as high as No. 24 in the nation.

The only other time Fields led the team in scoring this season was back on Nov. 15, 2009 when he hit four 3-pointers and scored 12 points (with two rebounds and an assist) in a 55-52 win against Samford. He had also scored eight points in a game three times this season in wins over Jacksonville State, South Alabama and most recently against Houston.

The low point of the season for Fields though came when he was suspended for three games over the last week in November because of academic reasons.

Before signing on with the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Fields was a four-year letterwinner at Olympia under head coach Mark Griseck. During his senior season he helped lead the Titans to a 28-5 record and a state runner-up finish – where he scored a game-high 31 points – for the No. 1 team in Class 6A.

He capped his senior year by hitting 88 3-pointers and averaging 17.7 points, 3.0 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.5 steals per game.

– Photos by J.C. Carnahan –

But in the third game between the two rivals, the comeback attempt for Edgewater was not enough as Winter Park’s Brett Comer dropped 23 points to help the Wildcats move along to the region finals – on Saturday at Jacksonville First Coast – with a 70-59 win.

Also still alive in the hunt for the Class 6A state title is Dr. Phillips, who will host St. Petersburg this weekend after winning 57-45 over Vero Beach. Oak Ridge will host Brooksville Nature Coast in Class 4A after narrowly escaping Gainesville Eastside, 55-54.

– Winter Park over Edgewater –

– 1st Quarter

The Eagles got early production in the first quarter on both ends of the floor from Patrick Diop (four points, rebound, forced turnover), Kent Gainous (blocked shot, rebound) and Alex Brayman (43rd 3-pointer of season, rebound) while Winter Park got going behind the likes of Adam Jones (four points, three rebounds) and Robert Lovaglio (two points, rebound) on Tuesday night.

Most impressive was that Edgewater held Winter Park standout guard Austin Rivers to zero attempts from the field over the opening eight minutes. What hurt them most though was that they failed to capitalize on scoring chances when they were there for the taking. And that seemed to be the theme the entire night.

The Eagles lead 9-8 with under a minute to play before the game changed in favor of the Wildcats for good once John David Swanson knocked down a 3-pointer near the baseline to put the Wildcats up 11-9.

The standout play of the quarter came nearly two minutes into the game, when Comer swatted the ball from Gainous near the foul line, saved it from going out of bounds, then sent a no-look pass down court to Isaac Turner. Edgewater’s Kendrick Perry got in on the action shortly thereafter by flinging a pass over the head of Rivers to find Gainous under the hoop for an easy lay-in.

– 2nd Quarter

Rivers wouldn’t take his first shot of the night until less than four minutes remained in the second quarter. That’s when he hit a 3-pointer from well beyond the arc to put the Wildcats up big, 27-9.

Winter Park opened the period with the kind of run in the first four minutes that would knock the wind out of most anyone. Edgewater turned the ball over three times and missed five-straight shots during that stretch until Perry put an end to the bleeding by converting a 3-point play that kick-started a 7-0 run. He would end the quarter with a buzzer-beater for the Eagles, though that barely cut into Winter Park’s 33-18 lead.

The Wildcats again got solid play from Comer (nine points, two rebounds, assist), Jones (four points, two blocks, assist) and Lovaglio (four points, two rebounds, assist, blocked shot) in the quarter.

Comer’s second highlight-worthy play of the night came early in the quarter when he took a long pass down court from Lovaglio, faked to his right with Perry guarding him, then came back to his left and leaned forward as he hoisted an underhanded shot that bounced high off the glass and fell through for a score. A foul on Perry sent him to the line where he completed the 3-point play.

– 3rd Quarter

The Comer Show continued in the third as Winter Park kept holding off Edgewater even as the Eagles cut the deficit to 10 points for a brief moment with 2:35 to go in the frame. That’s when Comer promptly drove inside for a layup and Swanson connected on a 3-pointer to help keep the cushion intact.

The third jaw-dropping play on the night from Comer took place with nearly a minute to spare as he spun off of a defender, fell to his knees while keeping his dribble, and emerging from the hardwood with the ball in tow – just as Brayman made a play on it – and drained a shot from just inside the paint.

Winter Park led 51-37 after three as Comer scored seven with an assist and Jones scored four with a blocked shot.

Edgewater kept fighting though behind the charge of Brayman (four points, two rebounds, steal), Perry (six points, rebound, steal) and Devinn Heard (four points, rebound).

– 4th Quarter

The final quarter proved to be nothing more than a formality as the Eagles could get no closer than 10 points the rest of the way, even as Winter Park gave them every opportunity to do so plenty of times late in the game.

It was missed baskets and turnovers that kept the home team at bay.

The final push for the Eagles was orchestrated by the efforts of Diop (10 points, block), Perry (five points, rebound, steal) and Gainous (two points, two rebounds, steal).

Lovaglio was the standout for the Wildcats in the fourth with eight points, three rebounds and a steal. Rivers, who despite having trouble at the foul line (4-for-9 on the night), finished with six points in the quarter to help secure the win.

Beau Taylor

It’s of little surprise then that Taylor would pick up where he left off a season ago in leading the Knights to three season-opening wins past visiting Savannah State over the weekend.

While batting in the four-spot in UCF’s lineup he went 8-for-12 (.667) with two home runs, five runs scored and five RBI in the sweep. He then was named C-USA Baseball Hitter of the Week for the first time in his young collegiate career.

Taylor totaled 14 bases in all while also throwing out two base runners. In turn, UCF won 7-2 on opening day then won 14-4 and 8-6 to conclude the weekend. Also coming up big at the plate in the wins were Chris Duffy (.600), Austin Johnston (.556) and Jonathan Griffin (.500).

The Knights play at No. 5 Florida (3-0) on Wednesday (Feb. 24) at 6:30 p.m. before returning home this weekend (Feb. 26-28) for a three-game series with Siena. The Gators lead the all-time series 19-12.

UCF will then play its first 10 games of March at Jay Bergman Field against Duquesne (Mar. 2), North Florida (Mar. 3), Central Michigan (Mar. 5-7), Miami (Mar. 9), Hartford (Mar. 12-14) and USF (Mar. 16).

– Contact Orlando Sports Central at JC@OrlandoSportsCentral.com –

What was initially being tabbed as Arena Football One (AF1), the resurgent indoor football game is back to being called what it always has been – the Arena Football League.

Same league name, same league logo, and some familiar franchises on board to take part in the resuscitation process more than a year after being forced to “retool the economic model of the league.”

AFL commissioner Jerry Kurz cited “severe recession and rising league and team operational costs” for the lost season of 2009.

The big news this time around though is that the weekly live broadcasts, which were previously seen on NBC and ESPN over the course of the past decade are back as well, as the AFL secured a new broadcasting agreement with NFL Network.

Although limited in terms of its exposure – notably in Central Florida for cable subscribers – the NFL Network will televise weekly games every Friday night starting with the season opener on April 2.

Locally, the Orlando Predators start the season on the road April 9.

The Predators will be featured four times on NFL Network, including two games against in-state rivals. The Preds are currently working towards their goal of a sell-out for their home opener at Amway Arena on April 30 against the Iowa Barnstormers, one of the markets that folded well before the AFL eventually did so following the 2008 season.

Returning indoors with the Predators are such AFL holdovers as the Tampa Bay Storm, Chicago Rush, Utah Blaze, Cleveland Gladiators and Arizona Rattlers.

The 15-team league will also include former independent and arenafootball2 franchises such as the Jacksonville Sharks, Bossier-Shreveport BattleWings, Alabama Vipers, Dallas Vigilantes, Tulsa Talons, Milwaukee Iron, Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz and Spokane Shock.

Alongside the announcement of the return to the Arena Football League title and new television deal, comes word that plans are already in place for expansion come the 2011 season.

Among the four markets with considerable interest to the league is Philadelphia, who’s Soul won the last ArenaBowl title under former Predators assistant coach and Winter Park High School alum Brett Munsey.

Also being considered for expansion is Southern California, Denver, and Pittsburgh.

– Contact Orlando Sports Central at JC@OrlandoSportsCentral.com –